1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of restoring electronic devices to an operational condition. More specifically, the present invention relates to system backup for electronic devices for later restoration due to device failure.
2. Related Art
As the components required to build a computer system have reduced in size, new categories of computer systems have emerged. One of the new categories of computer systems is the “palmtop” computer system. A palmtop computer system is a computer that is small enough to be held in the hand of a user and can therefore be “palm-sized.” Most palmtop computer systems are used to implement various personal information management (PIM) applications such as an address book, a daily organizer, scheduling calendar, and electronic notepads, to name a few. Palmtop computers with PIM software have been known as Personal Digital Assistants (hereinafter referred to as “PDAs”).
In addition to PIM application features, some PDAs also include internal radio devices allowing connection to wireless communication networks. Enabling a PDA with wireless capabilities provides features not normally found on a PDA, including but not limited to, wireless internet access and wireless communication (e.g., cell phone communication).
Operation of the radio device within a PDA requires extensive calibration procedures within controlled environments upon manufacturing. These calibration procedures result in defining operational parameters required for operational use of the radio device. Additionally, the operational parameters may be unique to each radio device. In a sense, each radio device has a personality that can be defined as an aggregate of data or information that is both unique to the device and critical to the proper functioning of the radio device. That is, the personality defines an operational state of the electronic device.
Some information that define a personality of a device include device serial numbers, radio calibration parameters, performance history, and wireless network identities. For example, the radio calibration parameters allow the specific radio device to operate within a standard spectrum of operating frequencies. Each radio device operates using a radio crystal that provides a frequency component depending on the dimensional characteristics of the crystal. The frequency component may or may not fall within the standard spectrum of operating frequencies. However, calibrating the various radio parameters (e.g., baseline and gain parameters) alters the frequency component to allow the radio to operate within the standard operating frequencies.
Furthermore, the radio crystal experiences a degradation in its frequency component over time due to crystal relaxation. This relaxation shifts the frequency component of the radio crystal causing the radio device to change its operating frequency. As a result, the original radio calibration parameters no longer correctly adjust the frequency component to allow the radio to operate within standard operating frequencies. Therefore, periodically each radio device undergoes a recalibration procedure that determines the degree of degradation. A performance history can be stored that allows the radio device to further adjust its frequency component for proper compliance with the standard operating frequencies.
The personality of the device is stored in memory, typically a non-volatile read only memory (ROM). Under normal operating conditions, the personality information contained within the ROM memory cannot be rewritten, altered, or compromised. However, should the ROM memory fail, retention of the personality information contained within the ROM memory is impossible.
Many of the functions of the PDA will be retained upon replacing the ROM memory upon failure and reloading the operating system at a maintenance depot. Operating parameters used for conventional features of the PDA are homogeneous throughout a class of PDAs. Replacement of these parameters can be easily accomplished without any degradation in operating performance. However, the radio device cannot operate properly without incorporating the unique information that defines its operational state or personality. Since this information is lost and not readily obtained, the radio features of the PDA are rendered inoperable.
One solution would be to recalibrate the radio device contained within the PDA. This could be accomplished by either providing calibration machinery to the maintenance depot or sending the repaired PDAs to the manufacturing plant for re-calibration.
However, cost issues preclude recalibrating the repaired PDAs. First, it is cost prohibitive to provide expensive calibration equipment to the maintenance depot. Second, the cost of recalibrating the radio device at the manufacturing plant exceeds any profit from or cost of the original equipment. In other words, repair costs in calibrating the radio device could approach replacement costs making it more economical to the user to simply replace the damaged PDA with an updated PDA. Third, since a repaired PDA has left the clean environment of the manufacturing plant, the repaired PDA will contaminate the controlled environment used for calibrating radio device, ultimately precluding any recalibration of the failed radio device.
Another method that was previously employed in test environments required manual back ups of the information that define a personality of the device. Should the device fail, a common occurrence and objective in testing environments, the personality of the radio device could manually be re-entered into the device. However, this procedure is time consuming and extremely error prone due to human involvement.
A procedure implemented for manually backing up a radio device could take more than three hours to complete. Not only is this time intensive, but human error is inevitable in reading the personality information, manually writing down the information, and then manually inputting the personality information back into the PDA.
Thus, previous methods and systems could not easily or economically restore operational parameters necessary for using a radio device contained within a handheld computer that has been repaired.